Chapter 2

THE PHILIPPINE CONDITION

IN THE 19TH CENTURY AS
RIZAL’S CONTEXT
- RIZAL IS AN EXISTING EPITOME THAT SETS FORTH
A HUMAN PRONOUNCEMENT THAT ALL
INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT DISTINCTION OF ANY KIND
ARE BORN TO BE FREE AND EQUAL IN THE DIGNITY
AND RIGHTS.

- DURING THIS PERIOD, SUCH AS CONCEPTS OF

LIBERALISM, INDUSTRIALISM, DEMOCRACY, SOCIAL
REALIZATION, AND NATIONALIOSM GAINED
CONTROL AND SPARKED RADICAL CHANGES IN
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ECONOMICS, SOCIO-
CULTURAL AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS.
 SPAIN AND THE PHILIPPINES IN RIZAL’S TIME

- SPANISH RULE WAS IMPOSED IN THE PHILIPPINES BY CONQUEST

-MIGUEL LOPEZ DE LEGAZPI
-THE FILIPINOS HAD THEIR OWN INDIGENOUS CULTURE AND ---- THEIR
OWN GOVERNMENT.
-THE SPANISH CONQUERORS FORCE THEM TO ADOPT FOREIGN -WAYS
AND SPANISH CATHOLICISM.
-CHANGES IN THE FORM OF GOVERNMENT AND LAWS TOOK PLACE
-THE PHILIPPINES BECAME A COLONY OF SPANISH
FROM THE BEGINNING OF SPANISH RULE UP TO 1821, THE PHILIPPINES
WAS ADMINISTERED BY THE MEXICAN VICEROY, IN THE NAME OF THE
SPANISH KING.
-MEXICO GAINED PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE FROM SPAIN IN 1821,
PHILIPPINES WAS DIRECTLY RULED FROM MADRID
POLITICAL CONDITION DURING THE 19TH
CENTURY: POLITICAL SYSTEM

-THE KINGS AND OTHER OFFICIALS ISSUED ROYAL DECREES

GOVERNING THE PHILIPPINES THROUGH --THE MINISTRY OF
COLONIES (MINISTRO DE ULTRA MAR) BASED IN MADRID.
-THE GOVERNOR GENERAL, APPOINTED BY THE SPANISH
KING HEADED THE CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION
-HE EXERCISED EXTENSIVE POWERS AS THE HEAD OF -THE
STATE AND THE CHURCH.
-THE GOVERNOR GENERAL WAS ASSISTED BY THE -
LIEUTENANT GENERAL (GENERAL SEGUNDO CABO) AND
ADVISORY SUCH AS THE BOARD OF AUTHORITIES, COUNCIL
OF THE ADMINISTRATION, AND SECRETARIA OF THE CENTRAL
GOVERNMENT.
-NEXT TO CENTRAL GOVERNMENT WAS THE
PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT OR ALCADIAS
RUN BY THE CIVIL GOVERNORS
- THE CITY GOVERNMENT CALLED “CABILDO
OR AYUNTAMIENTO” ADMINISTERED BY A
MAYOR AND A VICE MAYOR. THEY ARE BOTH
CHIEFEXECUTIVES AND CHIEF JUDICIAL
MIGISTRATE.
- THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNIT COMPOSED
OF BARANGAYS HEADED BY THE
“GOBERNADORCILLO” (LATER CALLED
CAPITAN)
- THE SPANIARDS RULE THE PHILIPPINES
INDIRECTLY THRU THE VICEROY MEXICO
- THE SPANISH MONARCHY WAS ABLE TO
COLONIZE THE BIG PART OF THE WORLD
- THEY HAVE ALSO THE CONSEJO DE INDIAS OR
THE LEGISLATVE BODY FOR THE COLONIES
- IN 1681, THE CONSEJO WAS ABLE TO RELEASE
THE RECOPILACION DE LEYES DE -LOS REYNOS DE
LAS INDIAS
- GOVERNOR GENERAL IS THE HIGHEST SPANISH
LEADER IN THE COLONIES
- THE ARCHIPELAGO IS DIVIDED INTO DIFFERENT
PROVINCES UNDER THE --LEADERSHIP OF THE
ALCALDE MAYOR

- THE PROVINCES ARE STILL DIVIDED INTO TOWNS

OR PUEBLO UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF THE
GOBERNADORCILLO

- THE PUEBLO OR TOWN IS AGAIN DIVIDED INTO

DIFFERENT BARANGAY HEADED BT THE CABEZA DE
BARANGAY.

- THE INDIOS OR THE NATIVES HAD NO RIGHT -TO

OCCUPY THE HIGHER POSITION IN THE
GOVERNMENT
The supremacy of the friars over the colonial
government
-Frailocrecia exist in the country during the
spanish colonization.
-The enemy of the church will be considered as
the enemy of the government.

Abuses of the Spanish Government Officials

-The excessive powers and privileges of the
governor general
-The provincial government where the alcalde
mayor was the administrator, judge, military
commander.
Instability of Colonial Administration

-The political instability in Spain adversely

affected Philippine affairs
-The Philippines was ruled by forty-five
governor-generals
-Frequent change of the colonial officials
hampered the political and economic
development of the Philippines
Corrupt Spanish Officials

-The colonial officials sent by Spain to the

Philippines in the 19th century
-General Rafael de Izquerdo(1871-1873), a
boastful and ruthless governor-general
-Admiral Jose Malcampo(1874-1877), a good moro
fighter but was an inept and weak administrator.
-General Fernando Primo de Rivera, governor
general for two terms (1880-83) and (1897-1898)
enriched himself by accepting bribes from
gambling casinos in Manila
-General Valeriano Weyler (1888-91), a cruel and
corrupt governor general
Philippine representation in the Spanish cortes
-The first period of Philippine representation in the
Spanish cortes (1810-1813)
-The representation of the overseas colonies in the
Spanish cortes was abolished in 1837
Human rights denied to Filipinos
-The spanish authorities who cherished these
human rights or constitutional liberties in spain
denied them to the Filipinos in Asia
No equality before the Law
-The spanish missionaries taught that all men,
irrespective of color and race, are children of God
and as such they are brother, equal before God.
Maladministration of justice

-The courts of justice in the Philippines during

Rizal's time were notoriously corrupt
-Poor filipinos had no access to the courts
-The expenses incurred even in a simple lawsuit
often exceeded the ,value of the property at
issue
-Dr. Rizal and his family were victims of Spanish
injustice
-Doña Teodora was unjus. tly arrested and jailed
on flimsy grounds.
-Rizal himself was deported in July year
1892 without the benefit of a trial.
-His brother Paciano and his brothers-in-
law was exiled to various parts of the
archipelago without due process of law
-Father Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos,
Jacinto Zamora and Rizal was executed.
Socio-cultural condition during the 19th
century
-Important as a stimulus to trade was the
gradual elimination of the monopoly enjoyed
by the galleon to Acapulco. The last galleon
arrived in Manila in 1815, and by the mid-
1830s Manila was open to foreign merchants
almost without restriction. The demand for
Philippine sugar and abaca (hemp) grew
apace, and the volume of exports to Europe
expanded even further after the completion of
the Suez Canal in 1869.
Transformation of the society and culture

-One of the most interesting aspects of the

Philippine culture history is the transformation
that result from the american occupation of the
Philippines. When the american came in 1898
they found a people that had already been
contact with western ideas, and western
cultures for three centuries. But although
cultural contact had profoundly influenced the
majority of the people.
Racial Discrimination
-The term “Filipino” after all began as
the racial designation for Spaniards
born in the Philippines to distinguish
them from those born in the Peninsula.
Because of the accident of birth, Filipinos, like
Americanos, were regarded as “creoles.” Raised
in the supposedly “backward” conditions of the
colonies, creoles were treated as a race apart,
seen by Europeans as beneath them. It was
only in the last years of nineteenth century that
youthful nationalists began to re-appropriate
“Filipino.” They changed it from a racist term
into a nationalist watchword to mean all those
who suffered the common fate of Spanish
oppression, and who felt a common stake in
the future of the colony.
Frailocracy/Secularition of Filipino priest

-A notorious invisible government existed in

Spanish Philippines. This government was
called "frailocracy" meaning rule of the friars.
During the last decades of the 19th century
the Spanish friars were so influential and
powerful that they practically ruled the
Philippines
-Two kinds of priests served the Catholic
Church in the Philippines. These were the
regulars and the seculars. Regular priests
belonged to religious orders. Their main task
was to spread Christianity. Examples were the
Franciscans, Recollects, Spanish church in
Cavite circa 1899Dominicans, and Augustinians.
Secular priests did not belong to any religious
order. They were trained specifically to run the
parishes and were under the supervision of the
bishops.
Conflict began when the bishops insisted on
visiting the parishes that were being run by
regular priests. It was their duty, they argued,
to check on the administration of these
parishes. But the regular priests refused
these visits, saying that they were not under
the bishop’s jurisdiction. They threatened to
abandon their parishes if the bishops
persisted.
Educational system during the spanish regime

-During the Spanish colonial period in the

Philippines
-During the Spanish colonial period in the
Philippines (1521–1898), the different cultures
of the archipelago experienced a gradual
unification from a variety of native Asian and
Islamic customs and traditions, including
animist religious practices, to what is known
today as Filipino culture, a unique hybrid of
Southeast Asian and Western culture, namely
Spanish, including the Spanish language and the
Catholic faith.
Spanish education played a major role in that
transformation. The oldest universities,
colleges, and vocational schools, dating as far
back as the late 16th century were created
during the colonial period, as well as the first
modern public education system in Asia,
established in 1863. By the time Spain was
replaced by the United States as the colonial
power, Filipinos were among the most educated
peoples in all of Asia, boasting one of the
highest literacy rates in that continent.
Simultaneously, the knowledge of Filipinos
about neighboring cultures receded
Economic Condition during the 19th Century;
The enconmienda system

-was a Spanish labor system that rewarded

conquerors with the labor of particular groups
of subject people. It was first established in
Spain following the Christian recovery of their
territories under Muslim rule (known as the
Reconquista). And it was applied on a much
larger scale during the Spanish colonization of
the Americas and the Philippines. Conquered
peoples were considered vassals of the
Spanish monarch.
The Crown awarded an encomienda as a
grant to a particular individual. In the
conquest era of the sixteenth century, the
grants were considered to be a monopoly
on the labor of particular groups of
indigenous peoples, held in perpetuity by
the grant holder, called the encomendero,
and his descendants
Haciendas Owned by the friars and Spanish
Officials
• During Jose Rizal times, the Spanish Friars
belonging to different religious orders were
the richest landlords, for they owned the
best haciendas in the Philippines.
• Naturally they resented the loss of their
lands which belonged to their ancestors
since pre-Spanish time;legally, however, the
friars we're recognized as legal owners of
said lands because they obtained royal
titles of ownership from the Spanish crown.
The Abuses of Guardia Civil, Church Officials and
Political Leaders
• Royal Decree of February 12, 1852, as amended
by another Royal Decree on March 24, 1888, for
the purpose of maintaining internal peace and
order in the Philippines.
• Jose Rizal actually witnessed the atrocities by
the Guardia Civil on the Calamba folks. He
himself and his mother had been victims of the
brutalities of a lieutenant of the Guardia Civil.
"for disturbing peace and persecuting honest
men"
The Different Socio-Economic Policies
Imposed by Spaniards

1. Reduccion

- The natives forced to live in the place near

the center and they could hear the sound of
the bell. This policy was implemented so
that the government and parish priest could
easily monitor them and for the easy
conversion to Catholicism.
2. Bandala

-The natives are obliged to sell their

products to the Spaniards even in the
lowest price and sometimes the
Spaniards will just issue some
promissory notes.
3. Forced Labor or Polo y Servicious

- The word "polo" is actually a corruption of the

Tagalog pulong, originally meaning "meeting of
persons and things" or "community labor"

- All Filipino and Chinese meztizos are obliged to

give personal service to community projects for
forty(40) days.
This was instituted in 1580 and reduced to 15
days per year in 1884.
The Effects of Polo y Servicious

a. The decrease in the production in

agriculture because the time for Polo Y
Servicious coincide with the planting and
harvesting period.

b. The decrease in population because

there were a lot of polistas who died
because of the manual work in Polo.

c. The rebellion natives.

4. Taxation

a. CEDULA- male and female 18 yrs. old and

above will pay 8 reales every year for the
cedula.

b. SANCTORUM- Tax for the church amounting

to 3 reales.

c. DONATIVO de ZAMBOANGA- one half real

to finance the war in Mindanao against the
muslims.

d. TRIBUTE- it may be paid in cash or in kind

The Tribute (Buwis) or Tributo
- July 26, 1523, King Charles V decreed that
the Indians who had been pacified should
contribute a "moderate amount" in
recognition of their vassalage.

- Miguel Lopez de Legazpi was first to order

the paent of the tribute both in Visayas and
Luzon.

2 types of taxes
1. Direct Taxes
2. Bandala Taxes
6. Galleon Trade
This trading policy changed the system of
free trading in the Philippines where in the
other nationalities like the Chinese are free
to exchange their goods with the Filipino
who had extra goods.

The Effects of Galleon Trade

a. The decrease in the production of the native

industry
b. The loss of profit of the local industry
c. The intercultural exchanges between to the
Philippines and Mexico